St. Mary's City, Md. – In her collegiate debut, first-year guard Shana Lewis (Bowie, Md./Bowie) paced the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team with 11 points as the Seahawks dropped a 66-49 decision to nationally-ranked Lebanon Valley College in St. Mary's season-opener Wednesday night.

After Lewis, the scoring was spread out evenly for the Seahawks as first-year guard Aura Payne (Glen Burnie, Md./Severn School) tallied nine points, five rebounds and five steals off the bench while forwards Jamie Roberts (Rockville, Md./The Barrie School) and Sophie Pruden (Carrboro, N.C./Chapel Hill) each had six points.  Pruden hauled in game-best seven boards as well.

St. Mary's (0-1) had the Flying Dutchmen against the ropes in the first half as evidenced by the half's the five tied scores and four lead changes.  The Seahawks claimed their first lead of the evening at 10:51 on a layup by sophomore forward Taylor Petrisko (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake), building a three-point margin before Lebanon Valley reclaimed the lead at 7:55 on a two-point field goal by junior guard Caitlin Murphy (Minersville, Pa./Minersville).

The Seahawks posted their second advantage at 3:34 of the first half as Pruden finished a put-back.  However, a pair of long-range shots by senior forward Eryn Schultz (Pottstown, Pa./Pottsgrove) put Lebanon Valley up 32-27 at halftime.  The Flying Dutchmen (2-0) are ranked in a pair of Top 25 preseason polls – 20th in the D3hoops.com poll and 22nd in the USA Today/ESPN rankings.

St. Mary's solid first half defense helped to hold the reigning Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year, senior guard Andrea Hoover (Glen Rock, Pa./Susquehannock), to just 1-of-4 from the field.  Hoover went on to finish the game with nine points on a 3-of-12 effort.   

After St. Mary's pulled within 34-33 at 17:50 following a three-pointer by sophomore guard Pui Sham (Springfield, Va./West Springfield), Lebanon Valley took over from there as the Flying Dutchmen capitalized on a string of Seahawk miscues to establish a 15-point margin with 7:45 remaining in the game.  Nineteen second half turnovers led to 20 points for LVC.

St. Mary's will look to nail down their first victory of the 2010-11 season Friday night as they open up their Seahawk Tip-Off Tournament with Arcadia University at 6:00 pm in the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center Arena.  The tournament's second contest at 8:00 pm features Haverford College and Virginia Wesleyan College.